CAO Offer FAQs

We email students who accept places and give them the information they need automatically. If you accept your offer via CAO before 5 pm, you should expect an email on the next working day.

The CAO system operates on the basis that the highest choice on your CAO form is the one you want most.

This means that, you will receive an offer of the course highest up on your course choices list(s) that you are deemed eligible for, if any. For example, if you receive your first preference Level 8 course in Round One you will not receive an offer for a lower Level 8 preference in subsequent rounds. If you receive an offer of your third preference course you may still receive an offer of your second or first preference course in a subsequent round of offers, but you will not receive an offer of your fourth preference course or lower.

However you should check the  (opens in a new window)CAO website for the list of courses with "Available Places" as there may be something there of interest to you.

You may request deferral to next year for all undergraduate degree courses. There is no guarantee that a deferral will be permitted as there is a limit to the number of deferrals we can grant. Deferrals will not be permitted if you want to attend another course of more than 1 year’s duration or if you want to repeat the Leaving Certificate to apply for another course. Please see full deferral procedure here. 

Prospective undergraduate students should note that the University holds induction events for freshers in the week prior to the commencement of lectures. This involves registration, academic advisory, social and orientation meetings. Lectures normally start in the 2nd week of September with orientation during the first week. Full information on academic term dates can be found here.

Clearing is operated in the UK system when results issue because the UK universities give conditional offers. The Irish universities only make offers after the school-leaving results issue and do not operate a clearing system. You could look at Available Places on  (opens in a new window)CAO website, which lists any courses which are not full and have no waiting list. These will now accept applications.

During the CAO season, application can only be made to Available/Vacant Place courses which are advertised on the  (opens in a new window)CAO website.  

If you have got a UCD offer it may be possible to apply for a different UCD course at the start of the academic year (if places remain at the end of the CAO season) or at the end of trimester 1 and if the last round of CAO offers is before the third week of trimester.. Please see the transfer page for details.

Yes for many courses we have a route via QQI FET.  Some courses also have a quota of places for those who complete the Open Learning course in UCD.

No. Applicants who are granted deferral must not repeat the Leaving Certificate examination with the intention of applying for a different 3rd level course. In order to get your deferred place next year, it must be the only preference on your CAO form. 

It is impossible to predict whether there will be more offers for any course. It just depends on whether all the places are filled at the end of the current round. We do NOT hold places back for round 2 – our aim is to fill on round 1. We offer more than the number of places based on our history of acceptance rates.

You need to have a NUI Irish exemption. Check your statement of results. If it doesn't show NUI Irs X then we don't know about your Irish exemption and you should  (opens in a new window)contact NUI immediately. We will try to accommodate you in a later round if your exemption comes through and you are eligible but if the course is full we may not be able to.

This means that everybody above the points listed has been offered a place but we were not able to offer places to everybody on the points listed at this stage. So random selection was used to select from the applicants at that points score. See the (opens in a new window)CAO handbook for details of how it works. We will not know until after the closing date if we will be able to offer to the rest of the applicants on those points.

• Check your results on CAO-- are all your results showing?
• Do you meet the basic entry requirements such as Irish?
• If you have an Irish exemption, does it show (IRS X)
• Do you have all the subject requirements? [Entry requirements and points are available here]
• Are you counting more than 6 subjects?
• Is it on random selection (* after the points score)?

If none of the above resolves it, contact us - include your CAO number in the message.

UCD has a reserved number of places for DARE and HEAR students. UCD allows eligible applicants to compete for places with a reduction of approximately 20% off the published points for the course they wish to enter. There are approximately 5% of UCD places reserved for eligible applicants. Please see DARE / HEAR full details of criteria on the DARE/HEAR webpage. You must meet the minimum course entry requirements to be considered for one of the reduced points places. Unfortunately, for some courses, there are more eligible applicants within 20% of the points than we have places for and the places available are offered in order of merit.

An applicant is entitled to appeal a decision where they feel that the application has not been considered in line with the published policies. 

The appeals process cannot set aside the rules for applicants who appeal for special treatment.

Appeals may be made only by the applicant, in writing and in line with the procedure, using the appeal form on the appeals website.